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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Myths & mythology
Text extracted from opening pages of book: THE ELDER EDDA AND
ANCIENT SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY,
MANAGER LONDON: FETTER LANE, E. G. 4 NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
BOMBAY \ CALCUTTA LMACMILLAN AND co., Lm MADRAS j TORONTO: THE
MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED Fig. i. Plate from a helmet found at Vcntlel in
Uppland. Fig. 2. Bronze plate from Torsluncla, Oland, Sweden. Fig.
j. Bronze plate from Torshmda, Olund, Sweden, AND ANCIENT
SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA BY BERTHA S. PHILLPOTTS, O. B. E., Lirr. D.
Formerly Pfeiflfer Student of Girton College, Cambridge Late Lady
Carlisle Research Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford Principal of
Westfield College ( University of London) Author of Kindred and
Clan CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1920 PREFACE THIS book was
begun in the spring of 1914, and only two chapters were unwritten
in March 1916. In adding these two chapters in 1920 I have
endeavoured to bring the rest of the book up to date, but the
occupations of the intervening years left little time to keep
abreast of the advances of scholarship, and the endeavour has not
been wholly successful. My task has not been lightened by the loss
of a note-book and some pages of the MS. through causes connected
with the war, and I am conscious that there is much to apologise
for. But it seemed better to publish the book as it is, with all
its imperfections, than to wait for the uncertain hour when I could
attempt an elaborate revision and expansion. My aim is simply to
place before scholars a theory of the dramatic origin of the older
Eddie poems. I shall be satisfied if I have made clear the grounds
which have forced me to formulatethe theory: should there be any
truth in it, others, better fitted than I, will work it out in all
its many bearings on history, religion and literature. The
dedication intimates that this book is my gift to Somer villc
College, In a more fundamental sense it is the gift of Somerville
College to me. It is the product of my tenure of the Lady Carlisle
Research Fellowship, and the central idea of the book occurred to
me while I was trying to present a rational picture of early
Scandinavian literature to the College Literary and Philosophical
Society. The idea struck root in favourable soil Miss Pope, Tutor
in Modern Languages at Somerville, was working at a theory of the
genesis of the Old French epic: Pro fessor Gilbert Murray,
Vice-President of the College, was always ready to stimulate and
illumine discussion on the relation of epic and drama: Miss Spens
of Lady Margaret Hall was writing her book on Shakespeare's
indebtedness to folk-drama, Moreover I think that the air of Oxford
was friendly to the growth of a theory viii PREFACE like mine, and
gave me courage to act on the belief that a clear understanding of
the form of primitive Scandinavian literature was an essential
preliminary to an understanding of primitive Scandinavian history.
It was only after I had written the first part of the book an
attempt to solve a literary problem on purely literary lines that I
was able to realise the significance of the heroic poems of the
Edda as a source for Scandinavian history and religion from the
sixth century onwards. Since the theories put forward have a direct
bearing on the problem of Greek tragedy, and may also be of
interest to mediaevalists, I have assumed that some of my readers
maybe unacquainted with Old Norse, and have accordingly given my
quotations in English, adding the original in the notes wherever
there is any doubt as to the reading. I had originally planned to
give translations of the more important poems in an appendix, but
joyfully abandoned the project on finding that there is some hope
that the poet and scholar who has made Greek tragedy live in
English dress may do a similar service to the heroic poems of the
Edda. In the meantime readers may be referred to the trans lations
in Vigfiisson and Powell's Corpus Poetmim Borc
Baring-Gould's eye-opening history of lycanthropy - the werewolf
curse - delves deep into the lore, unearthing various historical
cases, several of which date back to Ancient or Medieval times. The
concept of a human transforming into a wolf has ancient origins,
with several Greek and Roman authors such as Virgil, Ovid,
Herodotus and Pliny raising the concept in their poetry and other
writings. Rumors of sorcery that could induce a human to change was
attributed to magicians in far off places such as Scythia, and such
beliefs were widely held. Later, the Norse civilization's mythology
introduced lycanthropy and other kinds of transformation. Humans as
wolves, bears, birds and other beasts were said to appear in the
northern wilds; the Norse God Odin took the form of a bird on
regular occasions. Berserker warriors would clad themselves in wolf
skins; Bj rn, son of Ulfheoin, was famed for his ability to shift
between human and wolf forms.
By analysing the folk stories and personal narratives of a
cross-section of Palestinians, Sirhan offers a detailed study of
how content and sociolinguistic variables affect a narrator's
language use and linguistic behaviour. This book will be of
interest to anyone engaged with narrative discourse, gender
discourse, Arabic studies and linguistics.
The supernatural lore of Ancient Greece and Rome is vividly brought
to life in these pages.The literature of Classical antiquity
bristles with horrible witches, mysterious wizards, terrifying
ghosts, magic books, curses, voodoo-dolls, even werewolves,
vampires and Frankenstein's monsters. Many of these tales have
directly shaped our own culture's lore of magic and ghosts, and
consequently, these tales speak to us today with great
immediacy.This book covers a period of over a thousand years that
witnessed some massive historical and cultural changes, including
the advent of Christianity. Ancient culture was generally
conservative and this is particularly true of its notions of ghosts
and witches, which are strongly bound up with traditional tales and
folklore of various kinds. Such tales preserve and conserve ideas
about ghosts and witchcraft, and they survive to achieve this
effect precisely because they are wonderfully engaging.
Lipsi is a small Greek island in the southeast Aegean Sea. There,
the local oral tradition weaves the island's history from the
mythical Calypso to this day, relating stories of people from a
distant past and of those who are still leaving their mark, until
the day they become memories and stories as well. This eternal time
of an endless repetition, as perceived by today's inhabitants, is
projected onto space making a narrative landscape through material
constructions, collective bodily movements, and supernatural
apparitions. The result of long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this
book refers to the community of Lipsi as an example of the
correlations between popular cosmologies, official religion, and
the development of a symbolic landscape, along with the formation
of collective identities and representations in the context of a
"cultural and social experience of the world."
The Musical Playground is a new and fascinating account of the
musical play of school-aged children. Based on fifteen years of
ethnomusicological field research in urban and rural school
playgrounds around the globe, Kathryn Marsh provides unique
insights into children's musical playground activities across a
comprehensive scope of social, cultural, and national contexts.
With a sophisticated synthesis of ethnomusicological and music
education approaches, Marsh examines sung and chanted games,
singing and dance routines associated with popular music and sports
chants, and more improvised and spontaneous chants, taunts, and
rhythmic movements. The book's index of more than 300 game genres
is a valuable reference to readers in the field of children's
folklore, providing a unique map of game distribution across an
array of cultures and geographical locations. On the companion
website, readers will be able to view on streamed video, field
recordings of children's musical play throughout the wide range of
locations and cultures that form the core of Marsh's study,
allowing them to better understand the music, movement, and textual
characteristics of musical games and interactions. Copious notated
musical examples throughout the book and the website demonstrate
characteristics of game genres, children's generative practices,
and reflections of cultural influences on game practice, and
valuable, practical recommendations are made for developing
pedagogies which reflect more child-centred and less Eurocentric
views of children's play, musical learning, and musical creativity.
Marsh brings readers to playgrounds in Australia, Norway, the USA,
the United Kingdom, and Korea, offering them an important and
innovative study of how children transmit, maintain, and transform
the games of the playground. The Musical Playground will appeal to
practitioners and researchers in music education, ethnomusicology,
and folklore.
Orature and Yoruba Riddles takes readers into the hitherto
unexplored undercurrents of riddles in Africa. Because of its oral
and all too often ephemeral nature, riddles have escaped close
scrutiny from scholars. The strength of the Yoruba as the focus of
this study is impressive indeed: a major ethnic group in Africa,
with established connections with the black diaspora in North
America and the Caribean; a rich oral and written culture; a large
and diverse population; and an integrated rural-urban society. The
book is divided into six chapters for readers' convenience. When
read in sequence, the book provides a comprehensive, holistic sense
of Yoruba creativity where riddles are concerned. At the same time,
the book is conceived in a way that each chapter could be read
individually. Therefore, those readers seeking understanding of a
specific type of riddle may target a single chapter appearing most
relevant to her/his curiosity.
People have been attracted to the lure of distant, exotic places
throughout the ages, and over the centuries a vast store of legends
and lore relating to travel have grown up. This encyclopedia
represents a complilation of travel legends and lore of
civilizations throughout the world.
This is a study of the manner in which certain mythical notions
of the world become accepted as fact. Dathorne shows how particular
European concepts such as El Dorado, the Fountain of Youth, a race
of Amazons, and monster (including cannibal) images were first
associated with the Orient. After the New World encounter they were
repositioned to North and South America. The book examines the way
in which Arabs and Africans are conscripted into the view of the
world and takes an unusual, non-Eurocentric viewpoint of how
Africans journeyed to the New World and Europe, participating in,
what may be considered, an early stage of world exploration and
discovery. The study concludes by looking at European travel
literature from the early journeys of St. Brendan, through the
Viking voyages and up to Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville. In all
these instances, the encounters seem to justify mythical belief.
Dathorne's interest in the subject is both intellectual and
passionate since, coming from Guyana, he was very much part of this
malformed Weltschmerz.
Chart your way across continents and oceans built from the stuff of
myths and legends and you will pass the winged Pegasus of Ancient
Greece, come face to face with Anansi the Spider in West Africa and
fly over the powerful Thunderbird of North America. Combining
mythology and folklore from all across the globe, this 1000-piece
jigsaw enables you to experience the fabled creatures in their
places of creation, all from the comfort of your living room.
1000-PIECE PUZZLE: The 1000-piece fantastical jigsaw puzzle
features the world as you've never seen it before: a magical place
full of mythical creatures! FUN, COLOURFUL ILLUSTRATIONS: Feast
your eyes on a the variety of colourful artwork across the mythical
world map. Combining mythology and folklore from all across the
globe. POSTER INCLUDED: Includes a keepsake fold out poster with a
guide to the illustration. EASY HANDLING: The 1000 puzzle pieces
are thick and sturdy, and the back sides are a white matte finish.
The completed puzzle measures A2 in size and the jigsaw puzzle box
measures 267 x 267 x 48mm. GIFTS: The perfect gift for anyone with
the imagination and passion of the mythical world. Beautifully
designed, The Mythical World Puzzle was created by Good Wives and
Warriors, an internationally renowned duo of illustrators, and
creator of Laurence King Publishing titles Myth Match and
Mythopedia.
This book entitled, Garden of Eden Found, is divided into three
almost equal parts. Part I of the book is exactly what the title
says. It reveals and explains the exact geographical location of
the ancient site of the Garden of Eden. This is an absolutely new
and a previously undiscovered site. People suppose that we must yet
wait on a prophet of God to reveal its location, but this book
explains that God through the prophet Moses said everything he
could to explain the location of the Garden of Eden in the second
chapter of Genesis. It is just that the names of the lands and
rivers have changed. Garden of Eden was located upon the North
American continent. Note that according to Genesis 1:10 each land
was called earth. Thus, it could have been on any continent. There
has never been one fact of evidence to show that the Garden of Eden
was located in the Middle East anyway. This has only been a
supposition of the so-called learned; even those who write the text
books; and most of whom do not believe in God or in revelation. The
author has simply put together the Genesis account of Eden with the
latter-day revelations concerning Adam-ondi-Ahman in America.
nights and Sabbath of the creation account in Genesis chapter one.
No one has ever discovered nor understood their ultimate meaning
before this work. The author submits that this concept is the
greatest concept that can be conceived by the mind of man
concerning ultimate reality. This concept ties together the law of
eternal progression, the order of the universes of the cosmos, and
the days and nights of creation as one and the same thing. So the
author begins Part II of his book with the following paragraph.
would name my address, The Number and Order of the Universes of the
Cosmos. If I was a philosopher and was presenting this topic before
my fellow philosophers, I would entitle my presentation, The Law of
Eternal Progression to Ultimate Continuum. But if I happened to be
a theologian, and was preaching a sermon to my parishioners, I
would call my message, The Meaning of the Six Days and Six Nights
and a Sabbath of Creation. This is because these three subjects
concern the same ultimate reality. The first is scientific, the
second is philosophical, and the third is religious. Actually, this
is the concept of mankind at the present time. Most people,
including scientists, the philosophers, and the theologians,
consider that the universe is the cosmos and that the cosmos is the
universe. However, this is simply not the true case of the matter,
for the cosmos is the sum total of the series of the twelve
universes of the cosmos. found in the first chapter of the Book of
Genesis in the Bible? Who would have thought that God had hidden it
in the simple account of the six days and the six nights and
Sabbath of creation? I will attempt to show, in plainness and
simplicity, that this is the true interpretation. Book of
Revelation. The new truth to understand is that they represent only
natural things and historical events of the past two-thousand years
of Christian history. There are three general principles that we
must accept in order to understand the symbolism of the Book of
Revelation. Let me now list the general principles in this order.
The first thing to understand is that the prophecy of the Book of
Revelation covers the past two-thousand years of western history.
The second thing to understand is that the prophecy is only about
Christianity.
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